


Bento?

by fumomoshi



Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 22:31:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14778512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fumomoshi/pseuds/fumomoshi
Summary: Rudo and Rako decided to go for a long overseas trip to America. However, looking at their daily spendings, it did not seem possible unless they start saving up a little more. After a bit of discussion and calculation, Rudo agreed to cook for them meals in order to save money





	Bento?

Rako stood at the entrance of the kitchen. The transparent plastic container in his hands felt warm, although he was not sure what it contained. He could only identify the brown noodles and some kind of brown sauce. Rako frowned. It smelled good, though, he could not deny that. He watched Rudo cook as he wondered, who was scooping off the last of the food from his wok into a plate. Rako, still holding the plastic container, walked up to Rudo who was wiping sweat off his brow, looking rather pleased with himself as he turned off the gas.

“Rudo...is this…?”

“Bento,” Rudo replied bluntly. Rako’s face grew more troubled. He had never seen such a messy bento, let alone one packed into a plastic container. He held it up so that he could see the contents and gave it a slight tilt, causing the noodles to slide slimily down to one side, smearing the brown sauce all over.

“Are there...chopsticks?” Rako asked, still looking and pondering over the container. 

Rudo gave a slightly annoyed look, as if Rako asked a dumb question. “Just take a pair from home.” Rudo said, gesturing over at the drawer where they usually keep their utensils. 

Rako looked at the drawer, the container, and his suitcase. He felt uncertain. Is the container safe? Will it not leak? Where will he place his chopsticks? There were just too many uncertainties. “Rudo, I’m not sure if this is what I had in mind when I asked you to make me bento.” 

Rudo gave a confused look. “What do you mean?” 

“A bento is supposed to be...you know…” Part of Rako could not understand why he had to explain this. It felt so fundamental to him that he could not find the right words to describe. “It’s supposed to be rice? And meat? Seperately?” He raised an eyebrow and added. “In a...container?

Rudo grabbed a plate and started munching on the food. “If you don’t like noodles you should have said so,” he said between his chomps. “I would’ve cooked fried rice instead.”

_ Rudo, don’t talk while you eat,  _ a part of Rako wanted to nag but he shook that thought off. “No Rucchan, I mean, you know bentos? Like the ones where you have a container with separate compartments and you put things like oranges into one, rice in one and meat in another?” Rako took out his handphone, searched for a ‘bento’ image and showed it to Rudo. “Like this.”

Rudo squinted at Rako’s handphone screen and rolled his eyes. “ _ That? _ ” Rudo spat, his face becoming more annoyed. “That’s too fucking troublesome man. And what’s wrong with the food I packed anyways? It’s still food in a container, right?”

Rako already felt as if he had lost the argument. He tried to argue back but it was difficult when Rudo had already broken down the idea of a ‘bento’ to just ‘food in a container’. “Rudo,” he tried. “I could teach you how to do it. It’s not that hard.”

“It’s not. It’s troublesome.” Rudo finishes his meal and placed the empty plated into the sink. “Your breakfast is over there by the way,” he said as he pointed at another plate. 

Rako, defeated, walked towards the plate and draw a fork from the drawer. As he held the plate up, he stopped. He knew that the container and his breakfast is the same, but he had just realized that because they were the same, that means he will be having the exact same dish for lunch.

“Rudo?’

“What?”

Rako could not think of a better way to state this problem, so he said plainly, “my breakfast is the same as my lunch.” 

“So?” Rudo asked as he poured coffee into the thermal bottle that he usually brings to work. 

Rako tried to think of an appropriate way to answer. As he thought, he cringed. For a moment, he felt like he was complaining too much, especially to the person who actually woke up early to cook for him. In that moment, he felt like a brat. “Nevermind…” he muttered.

“If you have something to say, just say it, idiot.” Rudo said. “I mean, we are living together now.” 

“It’s just that...it’s...eating the same food again." Rako struggled to find the right words. "Aren’t you afraid of being tired of it?"  _ I would.  _

"I thought we are trying to save money." Rudo said as he picked up his motorcycle helmet from the other end of the counter.

"Well, that’s true...but..." 

A soft quick peck on the cheek left Rako stunned for a moment.  

"Then stop fucking complaining." 

Rako swore Rudo gave a smirk before he walked towards the entrance door and left.  He rubbed his cheek where Rudo had kissed him and looked at the 'bento' in his hands. With a wry smile, he shrugged away all his thoughts and stuffed it into his suitcase. 

And he sighed. 

I'm being such a child.

 

* * *

Rako sat on his seat in his office. His warm ‘bento’ sat on his table, freshly microwaved,  brown sauce slowly trickling down the edge of the box inside.  _ This is...going to be a mess, right? _ He looked at the important documents messily placed all over his table and started packing them.  _ Well, at least I’m finally organizing my papers.  _ When he was finally done, returned to his seat and draw out a stack of napkins.  _ Just in case. _

Finally, wooden chopsticks that he grabbed from the nearby convenient store in hand, he peeled open the cover as thick steam started to escape into the room.

“Whoa!” came a voice from the opposite end. It was Kaito. A hard worker, usually the type that does his own work without bothering others. “Wow! What’s that smell?” 

Rako looked up and saw Kaito’s head pop out of his cubicle. He raised an eyebrow.  _ This is a rare sight _ . 

“Wow, Rako! You can cook?” came a female voice from beside. He turned and saw Manako head pop out of her cubicle beside his. 

“Smells great, did you make it yourself?” came another voice.

“Do you think his girlfriend made it for him?”

“I don’t think so. It looks like stir fry? His girlfriend must be mad at him.”

“Calm down! He obviously cooked it himself! I mean, it’s stir fry!”

“Ah I see. Well, it’s quite a manly dish so that makes sense. But wow Rako, I didn’t know you were the type to stir-fry.”

_ I’m not. _

“Oi, can’t you see his ring? He has a fiancee. She cooked for him, I’m telling you.”

“Or maybe she can’t cook? That’s why he’s cooking for himself?”

“Oh that’s so sad! He should teach her though?”

“Oi, why must a girl always cook for a guy? Times have changed! Guys can cook for girls now!”

“Ah, I cook for my girl too!”

Rako finished his food with a very annoyed frown, the chattering still ongoing at the background. “Alright guys, lunchtime is over. Get back to work.” He wiped his mouth and cleaned his desk with his napkins, and hurried off with the remains of the ‘bento’ to get rid of it. 

“I can cook for you if you want!” offered a lady from the background. 

Rako didn’t want to hear any of it.

 

* * *

 _Tssssss----_ _  
_  
Rako could hear the loud sizzling sound of frying as he returned home.  
  
"I'm home!" he declared over the noise and took a whiff. _Fried rice,_ it smelled like. He sighed at the thought. He had been eating stir-fried stuff all day and could not see how he could stand for another day of it. Seeing that Rudo was busy cooking, he returned to his room to change into more comfortable clothes, trying to think of a better solution as he waited.  
  
After a while, the sizzling died down, and Rako could hear faint sounds of scooping. He took that as a signal that Rudo was done and walked towards the kitchen.  
  
"Yo," Rudo noticed Rako as he entered. "H-How was your day?"   
  
Rako almost laughed. Until now, Rudo was still trying his best so say those words. "It...could be better," Rako replied. "Rucchan, we need to talk about the bento."  
  
"Why?" Rudo frowned. "Is it not good?"  
  
"It's not that. It's just, we can't be eating stir-fry everyday."   
  
Rudo gave a troubled face. Rako recognized that expression. That troubled face was actually a face of helplessness, the face he always makes when he could not find an immediately solution to a problem. Rako expected Rudo to retort with something like "Hah?! Then don’t eat it then!", but this time, it felt like Rudo had acknowledged that such a problem would occur at some point and just decided not to deal with it until it happens. Which is now.  
  
"We...could rotate making food.” Rako suggested. “ And decide on a menu." _So that I won't get what I got for lunch today, and eat the same meal twice in a row._ _  
_  
"...It's your workplace too, isn't it?" Rudo asked, his voice sounded a little bitter. Rako instinctively wanted to say 'no' but the pause he made to think about lying gave it away. "When I was eating today, it occurred to me that your workplace is probably very different from mine." Rudo explained. “In more ways than one.”  
  
“To be fair, it did not occur to me until today either,” Rako said. He felt that he could deal with what happened during lunch, but it would be a lie to say that he was not concerned about it at all. Working in a big company, and as a salesman, the concept of a ‘clean’ image is important and a part of the job, but to Rudo who works in a automobile workshop, it is not as important. "Like I said, let's work on a menu," Rako suggested again.  
  
"I can only fry stuff, though." Rudo said, folding his arms.    
  
Rako gave a cheeky grin. "I could teach you to cook other stuff."  
  
"Fuck no," Rudo spat. "Not your kind of dishes with all that garnish and decorations and stuffs.” He looked at Rako quizzingly. “Wait, are you even capable of cooking normal stuff?!"  
  
Rako felt a little hurt by Rudo's choice of words but he understood that 'normal' to him basically meant 'not extravagant'. "I can cook omelette rice, I guess." Rako folded his arms and started thinking. The list of surprising hard to come up with. "I think I can do normal bentos too."  
  
"Wait, I'm worried about your definition of 'normal'," Rudo said. __That makes both of us , Rako thought but he lets him continue. "Our meal should be less than 300 yen to make. Any more, we might as well buy from the convenient store."  
  
Rako winced at the mention of the amount. "Only...three...hundred...?"  
  
"What? I’m already being generous. I was thinking more of two hundred.” Rudo sighed. “Or we can forget about the trip and..."  
  
"I'll do it."  Rako voice sounded firm, but his eyes were swam in uncertainty.   
  
Rudo grinned. "Well then, I'm looking forward to your 300-yen meal tomorrow." He picked up the two plates of fried rice on the counter and walked towards the table where they normally consume their food.  
  
Rako sat down at the table, looking a little miserable at the simple dish that Rudo made, and made a wry smile. "Can it be 500-yen instead?"   
  
"Fuck off." Rudo cursed and began to stuff himself with the fried rice. 

Rako’s stomach growled. This saving up thing is much harder than he initially thought.

 


End file.
